Una navidad muy prendida

While this movie is not laugh out loud funny, I still found it cute and entertaining. I especially liked the unique and bright light display. I don't know if most of those lights were just computer generated or if they decorated a real house, but it sure looked amazing.

In the movie, Buddy hall and his family moves across the street from the Finch's. He comes up with the idea of making his house bright enough to be seen from outer space. All the lights and traffic begin to aggravate Steve Finch. He makes an attempt to sabotage Buddy's lights, but his attempt isn't very successful. He competes with Buddy in the town speed skating contest. Steve's wife gets along with Buddy's and she and kids begin doing things different. Steve wants everything done the same as in the same "family traditions." Buddy and Steve learn a lesson in the end and what it means to be good neighbors.

FINAL VERDICT: Entertaining. 12 year olds should like this as well as adults.

The reviews and the comments were quite harsh, so I decided to take the gamble and go see it. Glad I made that decision. I laughed and so did my wife and 13 year old daughter. The 11 year old boy didn't spend nearly as much time laughing.

Some of the funniest scenes are in the trailers, as with the majority of movies, but there were a number of surprises.

It starts out great and does slide downhill just a bit. Maybe they ran out of good material towards the end... Or possibly they wanted to actually make a statement, about the seriousness of Christmas. Either way, I would not pay to see it again, but I would rent it or watch it on TV.

Merry Christmas...

...unless you're maybe 8 years old, in which case the sight gags might keep you amused. For a while. Matthew Broderick should be ashamed for getting himself mixed up in a mess like this. He's good at playing straight men, but his deadpan delivery of this lousy script will have you checking your watch frequently. It's a particular waste of his comedy talent, which is well-documented. Danny DeVito once again demonstrates that his career peaked about 10 years ago as he mopes his way through the story. Just when you think you've got his character figured out, he does something that takes you back to square one. Is he a nice guy? A scumbag? A criminal? It could be any of those things, or none. God knows the ending doesn't give you any ultimate idea. I don't really know, and I don't really care. Avoid this film unless you have nothing better to do at the mall except wait for a swollen molar to subside. It's about the only thing that seems less appealing than sitting through this turkey.

Great storyline, good looking ladies, veteran actors, all add up to an enjoyable movie. The conflict between DeVito's Buddy Hall, and Broderick's Steve Finch is played excellently from two of Hollywood's veteran actors. Buddy Hall is one of those guys who is always looking for special meaning in his life. When he moves next door to Steve Finch, he thinks he's found it when he decides that he would like for his Christmas lighting to be able to be viewed from space. Unfortunately, Steve just happens to be the "chief" of Christmas lights in his little hamlet, and he develops a quick dislike for all things Buddy. The movie is chock full of pranks that they pull on each other, while their beautiful, and understanding wives tolerate them at best. In the end, the challenge for them both is to discover the true meaning of Christmas in time to save their holidays, and maybe even their marriages. If you like a good sentimental Christmas film, then you'll probably like this one. Lots of funny scenes with plenty of drama mixed in. I give it a solid 8 out of 10 for a Christmas themed film.

To put it briefly, this was an entertaining movie, gave me a number of laughs and was also extremely stupid and insulting to anyone's intelligence. But, if you look at it strictly as a farce, it will do for a 90-minute diversion. Just don't take any of the characters seriously and try not to get annoyed - which isn't easy - at the typical comedy clichés that are in this movie. And - as some others have pointed out - do not watch this with your kids; it's not "family fare."

Many of the dumb "Hollywood stereotypes" you've endured in comedies the last few decades are in this film. A few examples: the obnoxious kids who say clever things; the typical family story where the men are made to look stupid while the women are smart and sensible; one guy who is a total crook is pictured as sympathetic; things happen in minutes that would take days to occur, unnecessary sex jokes, on and on. Yet, through it all, there are some funny lines of dialog and the Christmas lights on Danny DeVito's house are great fun to see.

This comedy also reminded me a lot of "What, About Bob?" as DeVito slowly drives neighbor Matthew Broderick almost crazy as Bill Murray did to Richard Dreyfuss. I'm told it also was like the National Lampoon's Christmas Story but I never saw that.

What was very interesting were two five-minute featurettes which came with the DVD. In it, is explained and shown how the movie makers built the two houses from scratch, put in all the incredible lights and light show and how it was made to look dark. The story takes place in a mythical town in Massachusetts (where nobody in the film, by the way, has an accent!) but was filmed in Vancouver in July where they were only getting six hours of darkness per night. Most of the film takes place at night so they also built as 60-foot high ark-like building over the two big houses! Incredible!